Protoplasmic by Boris Savoldelli - Elliot Sharp

The duo charts an avant-garde like adventure here. Italian vocalist Boris Salvoldelli is a master contortionist, where he morphs his wares through phased loops and oscillating electronics, while New York City-based guitar genius and electronics denizen Elliot Sharp pulls more tricks out of his bag on this cunning 2009 release. With streaming EFX, Sharp’s odd-tunings, bizarre phrasings and garrulous processing manipulations, the music defies categorization. (It’s not for the feint of heart.)

Themes dissipate into thin air due to the artists' interlocking instillation of hallowing backdrops and murky environs. They propagate notions of a strange universe via a consortium of renegade abstractions and cartoon-like caricatures. The musicians’ enactments are playfully weird and quite interesting. Marked by delays, echoes and other electronics-centric maneuvering, Salvoldelli often multi-tracks his lyric-less voice parts atop Sharp’s maniacal plucking and howling notes.

On the piece titled "Prelude To Biocosmo Pt. Two," Salvoldelli commences with a spiritual-like gait, segueing into a string of maddening screams amid Sharp’s blitzing lines and scathing EFX. But on "Khaotic Life," the artists communicate notions of two worlds colliding due to popping voices, bombastic walls of sound and nightmarish tonalities. Folks, this isn’t background music by any stretch, as the program pronounces an otherworldly soundscape, partly spiced with outlandish shadings and off-kilter derivations of various genres. Then we toss in some modern day John Cage inferences, and you might have some idea of what’s happening here. Ultimately, this bold and unusual endeavor stands on its own, in rather prominent fashion.